Conference Dates

January 12-16, 2003

Abstract

Entrepreneurship for engineering students must be taught within the global context. Lacking that, graduates will be ill prepared to be internationally competitive. Any engineering graduate who does not scour the earth for new ideas, developments and designs is not competitive. And any engineer who does not look at the total world marketplace for sale of products is limiting potential success. This paper will outline what every entrepreneurially minded student should have in the way of competencies, attitudes, communication strategies, cultural understandings, business mores, multinational corporate logistics, and macroeconomics understandings. It will outline cultural soft skills needed, as well as hard-nosed business skills. Many US universities may be prepared to work effectively with internationally minded students, but engineering students typically do not get involved ñ only 2 to 3 percent of engineering students get a meaningful international exposure prior to graduation. Among other constraints, engineering faculty members are less than aggressive in encouraging them to get such experience. To meet the needs of engineering students, institutional and individual partnerships must be created to promote international collaborations, including design projects, international internships, exposure to successful entrepreneurs from other parts of the world including developing countries, etc.

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